Confirmed coronavirus cases surge in reopened JBS Colorado beef plant; worker dies - union

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

APRIL 30, 2020 / 10:32 PM / UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO

CHICAGO (Reuters) - COVID-19 cases at a JBS meatpacking plant in Colorado have more than doubled “in a number of days” and a sixth employee died of the virus, a union official said on Thursday, underscoring the risks of U.S. meat plants reopening.

The beef plant in Greeley, Colorado, started operating last Friday after it was closed for about two weeks following an outbreak among workers.

“The uptick in cases in a matter of days shows how serious this crisis is and the dangers that workers are facing every day just trying to do their jobs,” Kim Cordova, leader of the local United Food and Commercial Workers International Union chapter, said in a news release.

Confirmed cases among workers at the plant rose from 120 on Sunday to 245 on Wednesday evening, a union spokeswoman told Reuters, citing numbers from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.


Read more: https://in.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-usa-meat/confirmed-coronavirus-cases-surge-in-reopened-jbs-colorado-beef-plant-worker-dies-union-idINKBN22D4AV?rpc=401&

[LovingA2andMI]

1. We will lose the ability to eat Meat....

And shit will go off the rails. This is how it likely ends.

[dewsgirl]

15. Yes, I believe that's where we are headed.

[sandensea]

2. Owned by those Brazilian miscreants the Batistas, you'll recall

Joesley Batista sold $1 billion in shares and bought that amount in dollars just before a substantial devaluation of the Brazilian real.

His jail term? 6 months.

Lula da Silva was in prison for 19 months (he remains under house arrest) for allegedly, and without proof, receiving an apartment as a bribe - an apartment owned by someone else (who sold it just after Lula was convicted).

Small wonder things went sideways so quickly at a JBS plant.

Thank you for posting this, Judi.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Mega criminals, admirers of Trump, of course! Had to get a photo of them to post here:

On the page where I found this photo, VERY recent Batista news appeared down the right side column. By golly, they've been so busy! That's how it is with these big "business" types, right?

Please check the news on the right side of the page:

https://abrothersmob.com/the-economist-brazils-fabulous-batista-boys/

So wierd, I was just thinking of these guys recently. Teflon Twins.

Looking forward to the day Brazil gets a clean President back in office, and this malicious business the fascists with Bolsonaro did to keep him from being elected will blow sky high. Everyone knows what happened in Brazil, I'm sure.

I needed to see the Batista news. I wonder if they had a Cuban grandfather!

[sandensea]

8. Good question. Perhaps they're distantly related.

Batista, on the other hand, is a common Portuguese last name.

It's safe to say most Latin Americans of Portuguese descent do live in Brazil - but there are smaller communities in numerous other countries in the region, and indeed the U.S. (Devin Nunes among them, sadly).

People of Portuguese descent, in traditional garb, during an immigrants' fair in Buenos Aires.

Argentina's small Portuguese community received more attention in 2019, when then-candidate Alberto Fernández cited Portugal's recovery program as a good model for crisis-burdened Argentina to follow, at least in part.

[Judi Lynn]

9. Had always assumed it was Spanish because of Fulgencio! Good to finally learn the truth.

It would seem logical that people living near the border in Argentina and Brazil would be bilingual by osmosis, almost! Have noticed looking at written words, they share a LOT of words, which surprised me when I started seeing duplicates. I envy your language skills, for sure.

Undoubtedly Portuguese people would be so happy for people to forget Nunes is Portuguese!

So many people will be wishing the best to this progressive president starts cleaning up the catastrophe left by the fascist greed machine who just slithered out of office, just as Nestor Kirchner had to do years ago. It most clearly has become a pattern. Happens here, too, as we are learning. Hope it won't be so long before the world starts learning from history so there won't be as much suffering perpetually.

Glad to hear Alberto Fernández' reference to Portugal. That's cool.

[sandensea]

11. Fulgencio is indeed a Spanish name.

Last edited Fri May 1, 2020, 03:21 AM - Edit history (1)

I believe Fulgencio, as a first name, is rare these days because it's just too antiquated.

Rather like naming a baby boy 'Aloysius' here in the U.S. : the other kids would probably snicker.

Coincidentally in Argentina, there was a popular cartoon character in the '50s called Fulgencio - a rather infantile, though good-natured, middle-aged man. His wife, the corpulent Tremebunda, called the shots.



A life-sized Fulgencio, in Buenos Aires' cartoon promenade. He was said to have "missed out on childhood."

[Kali]

18. I thought Nunes was Basque

edit: looking him up, I see he is of Portuguese heritage - you are correct.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

16. A big JBS plant in Brazil having similar difficulties. (Bosses: "What difficulties?"). Brazil

Brazil is blowing up, even with under counting and a ridiculous lack of testing (about one twelfth of US rate).

[Demovictory9]

3. no one needs to eat beef. close the plant, save their lives

[McKim]

17. We Are No Longer Eating Meat

WE are no longer eating meat at this household. I do not want to be part of this attack on workers!

[yuiyoshida]

7. for all those REPUBLICAN STATES that open up....

You really are a DEATH CULT...Killing off your customers for profit.

[Judi Lynn]

10. As long as they can keep breaking unions, they will always have disposable people who work cheap,

stay poor, and have to take what they dish out. So damned sad.

Being able to separate health care from the employers' control, IF it can finally be accomplished with a human Congress, would alleviate so much misery, at least.

[keithbvadu2]

12. There must be plenty of unemployed republicans who would work in meat plants rather than collect une

There must be plenty of unemployed republicans who would work in meat plants rather than collect unemployment.

[duforsure]

13. They can only survive if people buy their products,

Running an unsafe food processing plant during a national health crisis will backfire on them and trump allowing it to continue. Until trumps gone no meat from any of these meat plants, and if I do buy meat , it'll be from locals, not from the stores, maybe never again. Is trump doing this intentionally to hurt and weaken us? Is he working for Putin and the Russian mob? His taxes will expose him if he is, so will others currently in prison , about to go , or awaiting trials. Expect trump to pardon them soon.

[stuffmatters]

14. I recall that Brazillian JBS also got 78M U.S. taxpayer dollars in Trump's "Farm" bailout.